Author: Nur Din Hidayat

Hi my name is Hidayat (but you can call me Din if you can't pronounce it, it's fine too) and i'm an aspiring Singer-Songwriter from Singapore. I love to write ever since i was a kid so here you'll find me writing about anything and everything but mostly geeky stuff too. Feel free to comment or better yet FOLLOW this blog site if you like what you're reading and i'll greatly appreciate it! :D

This movie is awesome. I will start off by saying that. We finally have a good Wolverine movie, and by far the best X-Men movie we have yet. This isn’t a superhero movie, no. This is a great film, with depth, well-written character arcs, the feels, that just so happens to have a comic book character in it. If you haven’t guessed it yet, yes, i LOVE this movie.

Okay so Logan is essentially the last time we see Wolverine on the big screen (FOR NOW) and the last time Hugh Jackman is gonna play the character. And what better way to send both the character and the actor off on a high note than with the third installment in the Wolverine trilogy. This character was what made Jackman into a household name and he has played the character for almost a DECADE. With the first two solo Wolverine movies being utterly crap, this one turned out to be a surprise to a lot of people. I personally felt that it was going to be good, just from the looks of the trailer itself. And thank God, it was more than i could’ve ever asked for.

An aging Logan struggles with adamantium poisoning in his body that affects his healing factor, he hasn’t been able to heal as quick as he used to, evident from the scars on his body. This is not the nearly indestructible Wolverine that we’re so used to seeing. This one is weary and slow as we are shown when he gets into a fight in the opening scene. He works as a Chauffeur so he can take care of an ailing Professor Charles Xavier, whom he hides inside a large water tank due to his dementia and seizures which can kill anyone in his vicinity. Xavier may or may not have been the cause of the deaths of many mutants, especially the X-Men.

We are then introduced to Dafne Keen who plays Laura (Comic book fans will recognise her as X-23), who was the breakout star of this movie. She gave a great performance as the runaway mutant and i hope we get to see more of her in the future.

Logan is then tasked to take Laura, along with Prof X, to the Canadian border, where she claims other runaway mutants will meet in a “mutant haven”, all while being hunted by the Reavers. With a broken-spirited Logan, who numbs both his physical and emotional pain with alcohol, who wants nothing to do with her or her problems, we see that deep down he still may have a heart as he is convinced by Charles to take care of Laura, and we get to see them develop a bond as the movie went on.

This is Hugh Jackman’s best performance as the character. He is so dedicated to playing the character right ever since the first X-Men movie. What a way to send off the character and the actor well with the ending that was so emotional and poignant. That’s the other thing: this movie will make you cry. Amidst the heart-racing action scenes, it has its quiet moments where we spend time with the characters and get to know them on a deeper level. And it’s all thanks to James Mangold’s directing and vision. This is a movie with a mixture of genres that was well blended together seamlessly – Western, roadtrip, escort/chase movie, for a moment you forget that this is a comic book movie. Patrick Stewart says goodbye to his role as Charles Xavier with a sweet and pleasant performance and we will truly miss both his and Jackman’s presence in future installments of the X-Men franchise.

Logan is without a doubt the best Marvel movie that rivals the best DC movie The Dark Knight. This is a movie you have to experience for yourself, a reminder that a superhero movie can have great storytelling without the explosions and giant laser beams shooting into the sky. Logan definitely set the bar higher in terms of how a comic book movie is presented and also as a film by itself. It reminded me the feeling of watching a great movie that invokes the emotions, leaving the cinema with that warm fuzzy feeling that i just saw one of the best films ever made and i can’t wait to watch it again. This is definitely in my top favourites. All i want to say is thank you Hugh Jackman for everything you’ve done with this character and for your dedication to make this not only your last Wolverine movie but also one of your best films.

Come on…let’s all agree that this is our Last of Us movie that we’ve always wanted.

I haven’t been blogging much because i’ve been pretty busy. I’ve been meaning to blog about a lot of stuff so let’s get to it!

First up is seeing my Hard Rock Heroes Guns N’ Roses live when they came to Singapore in February. I first got introduced to GnR in my mid-teens and i instantly became a fan of their music. They were the reason why i wanted to learn the guitar in the first place; to learn how to play their songs! Back then, seeing a GnR reunion felt like it was never going to happen because of the feud between the original members so i never got my hopes up. The closest i got to seeing a GnR concert was the time Slash came to Singapore with Myles Kennedy as the Singer and they played GnR classics, i thought that was what it felt like if a reunion were to happen. But again, i didn’t put too much thought to it seeing that at that time when Slash was promoting his Solo album, Axl Rose was touring with his new incarnation of Guns N’ Roses.

Lo and behold, a Guns N’ Roses Reunion happened and i was super excited about it! More so when they announced a concert here in SG!

So the 25th of Feb came. My body was ready. I’ve BEEN ready for many years already! I got my ticket, got my GnR T-Shirt on, GnR songs in my playlist, made my way to Changi Exhibition Centre.

I went to the Merchandise Booth and pretended to browse through the stuff they got displayed, because i couldn’t afford any of those, i mean, $50 for a T-Shirt?! I can get $20 for a Gnr T-Shirt at Peninsula! I’ve already spent too much on this ticket, which costs me $300. Food and drinks there were no exception so i skipped those too. Past experiences have taught me to have my lunch at home. The queues for the booths can get crazy long so i thought it best to get to the concert venue early to get a good view.

Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown was playing and they were good! I liked their music which sounded like the old school type of Rock that you don’t get a lot these days. I’ve followed them on their FB page and am going to check out more of their music pretty soon.

Wolfmother played later as the 2nd opening band. They were great too but their music didn’t resonate as well as TBATS did with me. I’m sure there were a lot of Wolfmother fans there that were happy to see them live based on the cheers when they played their songs.

So night came, the main event was about to start, the lights were dimmed, i was squashed in the crowd, just wanted them to get on stage already…where were they?

And then they came on with “It’s So Easy” and i just lost it. It was unbelievable. I saw Axl, Slash and Duff on stage live i was smiling from ear to ear. Axl sounded so damn good! Slash was legendary as always. The whole band was tight! All that waiting and sweating under the heat didn’t matter when they got on stage.

For obvious reasons, Axl can longer able to do the snake dance as fluid as he could in his younger days lol.

I think i was that crazy, super hardcore fan that knew and sang to like 99% of their songs. It felt like a dream come true to see my favourite band playing the classic GnR songs like November Rain, Welcome to the Jungle and my personal favourite Nightrain. It was simply amazing. Everyone sang along to the songs, i got excited when they actually played some from the Chinese Democracy album (don’t hate, there’s some good stuff in that album too. I like to see it as an Axl Rose Solo album), what a night it was. I only wished they had played Don’t Cry, because that was the very first song i learned on the guitar, but despite that it still was a great setlist and i’m just glad they decided to reunite (albeit without Izzy and Adler) and perform here in Singapore.

Thank you Guns N’ Roses, for your Music and an awesome night i’ll never forget.

Check it out. I’ve seen most of my favourite bands live and now even GnR. If it’s not too much to ask, Universe, can i get to see Helloween, KISS, Led Zeppelin, Disturbed live too? 😀

Here is my cover of an NSYNC song! Hope you guys like it! Like, Share and Subscribe if you do! I’m looking downwards in the video a lot because i was reading the chords for the song. Didn’t realise the camera didn’t even get my guitar so shouldn’t have thought too much on playing the chords right for the video lol.

Split is a horror thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan and stars Anya Taylor-Joy (Casey) and James McAvoy (Kevin) about a man with 23 different personalities living inside of him and one of them has kidnapped three teenage girls in his basement, leaving them with a few days to escape before Kevin decides he’s done with them.

First Thing’s First

With this being yet another Shyamalan movie, we all wanted to know: Is this movie any good? Or is this another trainwreck like The Happening? I have nothing against Shyamalan. I LOVED The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and going in i was really hoping this movie to be good. There was a time in the late 90s and early 2000s where he was touted as the next Spielberg and the Director to look out for. Something went wrong halfway i guess and his recent movies weren’t as good as expected. He seems like a nice guy and i think we just want him to start making good movies again.

So…How’s The Movie?

This movie is good. I am SO GLAD i get to say that! The Visit was alright but this. THIS is Shyamalan’s comeback movie and a return to form. It proofs that when it’s a small scale movie and not a big budgeted summer blockbuster Shyamalan does it so well. The movie really makes you want to know how everything turns out and whether the three girls make it out alive. Yeah it’s a Shyamalan movie so you know it may feel like a slow burn but as evident in his movies (The good ones at least) it will definitely pay off by the third act. It’s also a Shyamalan movie if you care about the main characters but the side characters are just bleh.

I have to say, James McAvoy, he gives everything in his role here. He plays a character with multiple personalities and he does it SO well. I’m not even kidding he went all out with this role (roles? haha) and was SO good in it. Whenever the movie felt like it might be going the snore route he grips you and pulls you back in with his scenes. They were ranging from funny when he played a child (named Hedwig), to downright terrifying (when he played Dennis).

And this movie can be scary at times. Like when Anya Taylor-joy, who by the way, excellent performance from her too, was running away from Dennis, i was actually afraid for her. And i’m not one to be easily scared by modern horror movies. The setting and cinematography did elevate the claustrophobic and sense of dread with the tightly shot hallways and dimly lit scenes.

Yes there is a twist

Throughout the movie i was looking for clues as to what the twist might be, because you know, it’s a Shyamalan movie. For a while i actually thought i had it figured out and knew what the hell was going on but when it was revealed i went, “ahhh now it makes sense!” and i went out of the movie hall smiling to myself because Shyamalan succeeded in giving us a twist that no one saw coming and it’s a big deal considering he hasn’t been able to pull one off since The Sixth Sense, and the movie got twice as better once you figure out what it meant.

All in all, Split is a great movie and a great comeback for M Night Shyamalan. Definitely gets a recommendation from me. I give this movie a “You’re forgiven for making The Last Airbender” / 10 .

SPOILERS! DON’T READ ON IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCH THE MOVIE

They should probably just rename the movie The Last of Us that just happened to have Wolverine and X-23 in it. I’m still looking forward to this though! This might just be the best Wolverine movie we’ll get! (After the abysmal that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine.)

It’s here! The trailer for the Power Rangers movie reboot! Watch it here first:

Looking like a cross between The Breakfast Club and…uh…Power Rangers…. This movie promises to be a Coming-of-Age story but also as a new entry to the Power Rangers franchise. When the show aired in 1993, it exploded into a worldwide phenomenon. Every early 90s kid watched and talked about the show, bought the toys (and if you had the toys, you were automatically the coolest), and wore the bootleg t-shirts (everyone and everything tried to cash in on the franchise back then, even trying to sell fake power ranger toys). I grew up with the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers in the early 90s, so naturally, i was excited when they announced that they were making reboot movie based on MMPR.
Then they released the first photo of the Rangers in their suit, and i was like, myeah, okay it’s alright, it’s not too bad. I can get on board with that. It IS a reboot after all.

The suits have really grown on me too. Then they released the photo for Rita Repulsa, the big baddie of the movie (and from the series), played by Elizabeth Banks.

And i was like, okay, okay. I’m fine with this. Elizabeth Banks is a good actress. I think she can pull it off. (#Ritaisthegreenranger)

Then they released a couple more photos of Alpha, and the toys for Goldar and the Megazord. (Kinda early to release the toys before the movie is even out, don’t you think? Gotta make that money i guess.)

Oh God! Oh God, Alpha! What did they do to you? Why do you look like a cross between E.T. and a space monkey? What’s wrong with your eyes?

Argh! What is this dripping lump of golden mucus?! That supposed to be Goldar?!

Okay guys. It’s like you’re not even trying anymore.

To be fair, it is a reboot after all. I’m still giving the movie a chance. But after watching the new trailer, i gotta say the movie is looking good! Heisenberg as Zordon? I’m sold! Just listening to his voice booming in the background, i’m like what more can you ask for? The suits look good in the trailer too! Even the zords! Okay movie, don’t disappoint me now. MMPR was and still is near and dear to me. Hope you bring something new to the table but is respectful to the source material. 🙂

I recently did a cover on my youtube channel. I am no Chester Bennington, but I really loved Hybrid Theory and Meteora a lot when i was growing up. So I decided to do one of the songs from Meteora. This is my acoustic cover of Numb by Linkin Park. Check it out and i hope you guys like it : )

Okay okay i’ve just got done with hyper-ventilating. This looks like it’s going to be a really great Spider-Man movie. First we have RDJ as Tony Stark which is always a plus (i just laughed so hard at the not-a-hug scene) and seeing Michael Keaton! 2017 bring it! I’m ready for ya! 😀

I’m still trying to figure out how to clean up my blog here but in the meantime, i wanna do this review!

Watch the trailer here first:

I am super hyped for this game! I have been ready since the time i finished the first game, and that was one of the best games i’ve ever played with compelling story and characters. I can vividly remember playing the The Last of Us at night (because that’s how you appreciate the insanely good graphics) and screaming from just the scares, and cursing from dying too many times.

Let’s talk about the trailer: First we see an all grown up Ellie singing an ominous song (probably a warning to her enemies she’s going to hunt and kill oooh she’s all grown up to be a super badass now!) and if you look closely you can see her sporting tattoos, this could be to cover up her bite marks since she can’t get infected due to her unique immunity to the virus, it would probably prompt other survivors to experiment on her to develop a cure. Do what you got to do to survive, Ellie. Secondly, she can play the guitar now. In the first game, Joel (the main character you play as) promised that he would teach her how to play the guitar, which now i guess he finally did!

Speaking of Joel, there is a theory going around that the “Joel” you see in the trailer is a hallucination of Ellie’s, meaning Joel is actually dead in the second game (Please no, i hope not!). But if it’s true, then i guess it would make sense why she’d be bent on “finding and killing them all” as she mentioned in the trailer. Also, it would make for a great story for the game. Personally i hope Joel is alive and we get to see him again.

Just like the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog can do no wrong. I’m ready for more nights of shooting infected heads and more screaming from all the scares (And the cursings. Don’t forget the cursings). 😀

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Hi my name is Hidayat (but you can call me Din if you can't pronounce it, it's fine too) and i'm an aspiring Singer-Songwriter from Singapore. I love to write ever since i was a kid so here you'll find me writing about anything and everything but mostly geeky stuff too. Feel free to comment or better yet FOLLOW this blog site if you like what you're reading and i'll greatly appreciate it! :D